drugs

[Doh Boy Fresh]

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Hi Guys,

I was wondering what drugs dentists can prescribe. For instance, if you have a patient with oral cancer, can you as a dentist write him prescriptions for cancer treating drugs?

Or are we limited to prescribing only antibiotics? Cuz from my shadowing experience, I only saw dentists prescribing antibiotics.

 

[rarm1]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering what drugs dentists can prescribe. For instance, if you have a patient with oral cancer, can you as a dentist write him prescriptions for cancer treating drugs?

Or are we limited to prescribing only antibiotics? Cuz from my shadowing experience, I only saw dentists prescribing antibiotics.

it varies by state law and YOUR EXPERIENCE AND COMFORT - with 4 years post school training in Oral Medicine/Oral Path/hospital dentistry I use many drugs that others should not use.

 

[DrJeff]

Your DEA # is no different than that of any MD's/DO's DEA # and in theory you can write an Rx for any med out there.

However, if there's an issue with an Rx that you wrote for say birth control pills, then you may very well have some legal issues to deal with. Keep the Rx's you write within the scope of your practice and your fine. If you happen to be an oral medicine person and/or an oral surgeon who does a bunch of work with an oncology program, then you may very well find writing cancer drugs within your usual scope of practice.

If you're a GP, who finds a cancerous lesion on a patient, you're more than likely referring them to an oral surgeon or directly to a cancer center for treatment and hence you WON'T be Rx'ing the cancer treatment meds.

 

[MALOKINMARTIN]

You're taking the risk on what scripts you write.

From my understanding of a general DMD

Up to schedule III we can script for with no question.
Schedule II requires special permission.
Schedule I is no go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act

 

[Dental PS]

I've noticed it does depend on the pharmacist to some degree and maybe their state governing bodies. In WA I notice them wanting to speak to the prescribing doctor verbally before filling the script more than in CA and AZ, for example. Typically for hydrocodone, oxycodone, and the like. Never been a major issue, but we try and get by with ibuprofen most of the time though.

 

[bigstix808]

I've noticed it does depend on the pharmacist to some degree and maybe their state governing bodies. In WA I notice them wanting to speak to the prescribing doctor verbally before filling the script more than in CA and AZ, for example. Typically for hydrocodone, oxycodone, and the like. Never been a major issue, but we try and get by with ibuprofen most of the time though.

i'm not sure of the exact law in GA, but i know that my dentist usually sticks with Lodine or some other NSAID for most patients...but i know she writes narcotic rx's for some of the more extreme cases. just don't go try scripting "medical weed" or morphine for a routine anterior extraction or the alike and i'm sure no brows will be raised.

 

[Praziquantel86]

Coming from the pharmacy side of things, it definitely depends entirely upon your scope of practice. Things like pain medications or antibiotics don't really need an explanation and the vast majority of pharmacists will fill them without question (pain meds are subject to state/federal laws, but that's another story).

As mentioned above, other, more specialized, medications are subject to interpretation. If you're a dentist prescribing out of, say, MD Anderson, then there should be no problem with prescribing chemotherapeutics. A general dentist working in a rural town would likely run into a lot of difficulty.

Things like birth control or Lipitor would almost invariably get shut down. Unless you were able to cite studies explaining their benefit to the oral cavity, you'd be hard pressed to find any pharmacist who would fill the prescription.

 

[aphistis]

I've noticed it does depend on the pharmacist to some degree and maybe their state governing bodies. In WA I notice them wanting to speak to the prescribing doctor verbally before filling the script more than in CA and AZ, for example. Typically for hydrocodone, oxycodone, and the like. Never been a major issue, but we try and get by with ibuprofen most of the time though.

Really? Wow. I'm glad I don't get a pharmacy phone call every time I write a pain script for oral surgery patients. After you get comfortable pushing the hard stuff through IV's, it's hard getting too worked up about the addiction potential of a couple dozen vicodin.

 

[DrJeff]

really? Wow. I'm glad i don't get a pharmacy phone call every time i write a pain script for oral surgery patients. After you get comfortable pushing the hard stuff through iv's, it's hard getting too worked up about the addiction potential of a couple dozen vicodin.

🙂

 

[DrTacoElf]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering what drugs dentists can prescribe. For instance, if you have a patient with oral cancer, can you as a dentist write him prescriptions for cancer treating drugs?

Or are we limited to prescribing only antibiotics? Cuz from my shadowing experience, I only saw dentists prescribing antibiotics.

A lot of what you are seeing has to do with liability. If you prescribe drugs you mentioned above guess what you are now in charge of managing that patient is that something you are prepared to handle? This is also why if you take a patients BP and its hypertensive rather than write Rx for BP meds you refer them to an internist/cardiologist.